CS-ADF Old School

The Cessna 150A CS-ADF was so different from the rest of the Cessna fleet in the flight school that the Leávia required that students should fly that particular aircraft with instructor before going solo with it. And wasn't for less than that. The so called "ADF" due to it's registration was built in a time that instrument arrange and cockpit organization was not important so the cockpit is a bit messy to nowadays standards.

 Credits: Filipe Cardoso

My first flight in this piece of history was a small vfr flight of about 1 hour from Cascais, LPCS to Cascais, LPCS and after that was always solo. Besides its exterior aspect the "ADF" had quite differences inside to, such as the flaps lever that remember the lever of  a Beechraft with that "Handbrake" style. The position of the pilot in flight was also different but I didn't found it to be uncomfortable.

Credits Filipe Cardoso

Unfortunately the "ADF" suffered a crash landing in November 2011 and was considered as unrecoverable due to the extension of the damage fortunately however was the fact that none got injured badly.

Credits: Filipe Cardoso

The Number of the CS-ADF was 15059232 and the only previous registration that I know about is an American one N7132X.

Credits: Filipe Cardoso

Here is the link to the preliminary report of the accident (in Portuguese) http://www.gpiaa.gov.pt/ look for previous years reports and go to 2011 reports.

CS-APA That charismatic noise

When I first flew the Reims/Cessna F150L CS-APA it was just a few flight hours since a complete overhaul that consisted in all normal procedures regarding the inspections to mechanical parts and structural parts. But the major difference was... the new interior all in white and blue with a small red line as contour as the very own Leávia Flight School colors. Oh and I almost forgot that this was in leather imitation. Nice!

Credtis: Filipe Cardoso

But the most distinctive thing in this particular aircraft wasn't the interior it as the way it sounded when passing by. This four cylinder Lycoming engine had installed two exhausts one on each side of the engine to a pair of cylinders, this configuration made the exhaust to be so small that it was as if there was no exhaust at all. Great sound, I liked it!

Credits: Filipe Cardoso

Since the first day of its life CS-APA passed through several owners and registrations and its manufacturer number is 1068. I could not confirm the first registration but if someone has more information is completely free to leave a comment for me to correct if necessary. Before coming to Portugal CS-APA had two registrations in France witch were F-BVBD and F-BSGQ.

Credits: Paulo Santos

CS-AYJ "Old Donkey"

The Reims/Cessna F150L CS-AYJ was the aircraft of my first instruction flight. Even to a 150 the YJ was slow and not a great fan of flying to high the Achilles´heel of it was it's low rate of climb and during summer with student and flight instructor aboard was very very slow indeed. The nickname "Old Donkey" was named by a college of the ATPL class regarding it's slow rate of... moving but always fit to the job of leading the inexperienced student pilots back to ground again.

Credits: Filipe Cardoso

As far as I could find the CS-AYJ has the manufacturer number 0916 and a previous registration in Germany as D-ECWL.

Credits: José Jorge - Jetphotos.net

The fabulous 20

Today when I was looking at my logbook I thought that not being a pilot with thousands of flying hours I've already flew a considerable number of aircraft. After counting I've reached to the beautiful number 20 witch is a considerable number counting that I'm still under 300h total flying time.

Some of these aircraft are more relevant to my as a pilot for several reasons than others but at the end all of them brought back to the ground safely.

The next posts I will try to present them to You and I might have a good story to share related to some of them.

FAA orders Boeing 787 inspections, cites fuel leak risk

US FAA has issued an airworthiness directive ordering Boeing 787 operators to inspect the aircraft for “improperly assembled” engine fuel feed manifold couplings.

There are currently 38 787s in service. In a notice published this week in the US government’s federal register, FAA said it has “received reports of fuel leaks on two different in-service [787s] and the subsequent discovery of several improperly assembled engine fuel feed manifold couplings on in-service and production airplanes.”

FAA did not mention which operators reported the fuel leaks, but Ethiopian Airlines has told ATW that it experienced a fuel leak on a 787 during initial operations, adding that the problem is now “resolved.”

FAA said the improper coupling installations “occurred during production” and include “couplings with missing or improperly installed lockwire, parts within the couplings installed in the wrong locations, incorrect parts installed in the couplings, and couplings that have extra parts installed.”

The agency added, “These conditions, if not corrected, could result in fuel leaks, which could lead to fuel exhaustion, engine power loss or shutdown, or leaks on hot engine parts that could lead to a fire … An unsafe condition exists that requires the immediate adoption of this AD. The FAA has found that the risk to the flying public justifies waiving notice and comment prior to adoption of this rule.”

ATW has requested a comment from Boeing. The manufacturer told The Seattle Times that about 19 in-service 787s have already been inspected and the company is making the necessary changes in its 787 production process.

IN: http://atwonline.com/aircraft-engine...leak-risk-1205

Portugal Airshow might come back!

The biannual most popular Portuguese airshow might return in 2013. According to a local newspaper the Mayor of Évora is looking for supporters and partnerships to be able to make the event in it's traditional location the Évora Airdrome, LPEV. Évora airfield seen in this last year the best and the worst happenings in Portuguese aviation.

On the worst side the death of a student pilot in a solo flight in the surroundings of the field with an investigation undergoing at this time. Also the shutdown of CAE-AAE flight academy due to a reorganization of the CAE group after a fusion with the Oxford Aviation Group.

On the bright side Embraer's facilities started to labor witch contributed to the creation of aviation jobs and lead to the creation of an aviation cluster idealized by the Mayor of this small town. When Embraer factories reach it's top in production it's expected to create plus 400 direct jobs and about 1500 jobs indirectly. Let's hope for the best to Embraer and wish them a happy and pleasant stay in Portugal for many years as possible.

Credits: http://acincotons.blogspot.pt/2012/09/fabricas-da-embraer-em-evora-vao-ser.html

AVweb's iPad Mini Flight Trial

I think that it starts to convince me by it's size but I don't know how much the size also affects readability of the information, let's wait for more tests to see that.

Chinese Airlines contract in Spain

According with Presstur magazine some Chinese Airlines are looking for pilots in Spain. Just about a month later Spanair ceased operations the director of Spring Airlines came to Spain to hire some experienced pilots to it's airline. According to the same source Spring Airlines offered jobs to 30 captains after interviewed them and stated that the airline as a predicted growth for the time being  and new aircraft will come to reinforce the fleet and experienced pilots are a plus.

One question: When will low time pilots have their chance? Waiting to see...

China lands high-tech J-15 jet on new carrier

China made the first carrier landing with the J-15 fighter, the Liaoning is a ex-Russian refurbished aircraft carrier delivered to the People's Liberation Army and it's the first aircraft carrier operated by China. Here is a footage courtesy of Russia Today television.

20th Airline Black List review in Europe

As you all might know the European Union created a Black List of Airlines that for the most different reasons are forbidden to fly to/in/out of Europe, basically all reasons are related with safety issues as bad maintenance practices lack of procedures or training, aircraft models banned from the European airspace, politics, security problems in the operation airports outside EU and so on.

Some companies continue to have permission to fly to Europe but under specific conditions like TAAG that is still allowed to fly to Lisboa and Porto, Portugal but under restrict rules. In order to achieve that TAAG invested several million dollars in new aircraft all Boeing 777 models 200 and 300 and started a rigorous training program to flying and non flying staff that operate in Luanda do achieve acceptable quality levels to satisfy EASA.

For now the list complies in 287 Airlines from about 20 nations worldwide.

Here is the link to the list. http://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/air/safety/air-ban/doc/list_en.pdf

Top Gear Style!

As the BBC's Top Gear chaps usually say: «Let's do the News»

After 11 years in Évora AAE closes operations in Portugal

After 11 years operating in the skies of Évora the Aeronautical Academy of Europe operations come to an end. The Academy was part of the CAE group that now has joined the Oxford Aviation group and the shut down of Évora facility is the result of the new strategy to the new formed group.

Earlier this year AAE already reduced the number of employees to the minimum and since last November that the AFIS of the airfield ceased operation due to the reduction of the AAE workers and this service was provided by the flight academy this service was a very good aid to pilots in an airfield that had a considerable amount of traffic specially student pilots. One thing I am sure is that CAE/Oxford won't get in Brussels Oxford or Amsterdam the same meteorological conditions to fly all year.

Airbus A350 MSN 001 rolled out of the Main Assembly Hall

That's right the Airbus XWB projetc rolled out of the Main Assembly Hall yesterday and will continue it's assembly and production tests and certifications in the next months. For now the newly aircraft went to Station 30 - indoor ground test facility.

Is it of my eyes or the A350 isn't quite pretty?

Photographs cortesy of Airbus

What a great flying day!

Past Sunday the meteorology finally gave some space to fly after several days of intense rains and even a tornado in Algarve that created a considerable amount of damage.

This was time to take the Ferreira family to the sky. All of them have already flew and Daniela has been already my passenger and photo reporter in 2 other flights but her parents were going to fly for the first time in a proper aircraft. Not that Airbus or Boeing aircraft aren't proper but they can take you from A to B without almost looking throughout the window to enjoy the views. The Cessna 172 is so different in that and that's why people o usually don't fly in general aviation aircraft always get amazed with the view and want more.

Here is a small footage of that flight that took us from Cascais, LPCS, to the south through Setubal, Alcacer do Sal and Grandola and the return via shore line to admire the beaches almost unknown and desert that extend from Troia all the way south until Sines.

Photographs were taken by Daniela Ferreira and if you're curious about her work check her Photoblog: http://life-in-technicolor-pics.tumblr.com/

About flight safety and accident investigation in Portugal

To me one of the most important part in aviation is the incident and accident investigation and report. Since I started my ATPL lessons that I started to read the reports of the Portuguese Aircraft Accident Prevention and Investigation Group (GPIAA) to learn with others mistakes. It's general knowledge that most of the incidents or accidents with aircraft result from human error or at least the human factor is a very important contributory factor to maintain the chain of events witch lead to the accident.

If all this is so important then it really is necessary that the bureau of investigation works the best way possible and with the least outside interference in order to conduct the investigations fast and accurate.

In order to keep this interests in flight safety and obtaining the truth about the events it's very important that investigators have at first a academical formation about the investigated subject. Normally in aviation are pilots engineers technicians manufacturers operators and others. Here in the Southwest corner of Europe the most skillful persons to the job are by far Air Force officers in active or retired whom normally get invited when retired to work as Lead Investigators in the GPIAA. These men have the field experience due to their past in the Air Force Nato EU, etc. and can with this continue to justify the costs of their formation when they were Air Force operatives problem is that now they receive the payment of their retire monthly and the new rules for public employees forbid the accumulation of retire payments and payments as a public worker. Soon as this law was approved the entire GPIAA collapsed. The composition  of the Group was in total made by retired Air Force Officers and so since then the investigations are stopped this stop affects about 11 investigations of 2011 events and all events of 2012. The Director of GPIAA stated that there are no conditions to continue with investigations but no actions were taken by the Government to find a solution and the Director itself requested to leave maintaining functions until a new board of directors take place.

Last year the number of accidents with fatal victims increased and other accidents an incidents increased as well so there is a need to investigate those events and find causes in order to propose solutions to prevent new happenings like those.

Lisboa-Vila Real-Bragança regional flights come to an end

Last Tuesday was the day of the last regional flight connecting Bragança and Vila Real do Lisboa here in mainland Portugal. This route was the only regional route apart the conncetions between Lisboa Porto anda Faro in Portugal mainland and was operated since 2009 by AeroVip with a couple of Dornier 228.

This particular connection between the east-northern most region and the capital was due to the lack of access-abilities to those who live in Bragança and Vila Real and need to come to Lisbon. To "fight " against the distance and the lack of highways or a decent and fast train connection  the flights started in 1997 and always with the support of Portuguese Government as an essential service to the community. The Government support was in money nowadays at a maximum value of 2.5 Million Euros per year and varying with the number of passengers. The rest of the profits were taken from the ticket sales.

T contract with AeroVip ended on last January and since then the company has been flying 6 days a week as normal without the State compensation rather the aircraft is full or empty. This represented a debt of the State to AeroVip of eight hundred thousand Euros. AeroVip continued the flights after agreeing that with the Portuguese Government until a process to select the company who would held this connection for the upcoming years. Now the decision has been made by the Government and the Lisboa-Bragança regional flights will come to an abrupt end.

This represents to the people of Bragança region a set back in time and proximity with the rest of the country and a increase of hours and money spent to come to Lisboa.

To AeroVip the year isn't going as good as they wanted to and this represents the end of it's only regular route witch will lead to end contracts of some employees.

Now as my personal opinion probably Bragança will receive it's so waited highway soon or later and the construction costs will be astronomical probably in a "coffee table" business delivered to a "friend" of someone. At the end people to come to Lisbon and use the new highway will pay tolls at values that almost touch stupidity and continue to feed the disbelieve in politicians and public defense of interests in Portugal.

New err... Old format

Somehow I got a bit tired of that format all flashy and almost reminding me the new Microsoft Windows 8. So let's get back to the old format and let's also try to write a little more ok?

North Atlantic - Your Film Festval

This film is between 50 finalists to the Your Film Festival from Youtube. It was written and produced by Bernardo Nascimento and despite all the technical parts if it's less real this or that detail this short film shows a relation between a lone pilot and a air traffic controller.

I will not tell you more so see it because it really is amazing and surely it also deserves your vote for the competition.

Finally some action!

Since I got back from the ATALANTA mission in the Aden Gulf that one thing had to be done as soon as possible and that was to fly again.

It's to hard to be without flying so much time due to work so it was imperative that this flight was to be made as a checkride flight to evaluate my proficiency to the airplane. Adding one thing to another I thought in buying some hours in a Cessna 172 from Aeropiloto to take some friends and family to fly also and this was the perfect conditions soon get into the sky again.

Aircraft reserved and the flight instructor contacted and here we go... wai a minute no we won't go anywhere because of the weather. The thing is very simple, from Cascais to the South the weather wasn't so bad at all and the clouds were above 2000ft so it was possible to fly to the work areas without troubles at all, the REAL problem was to the North. North of Cascais Aerodrome is the mountain chain of Sintra wich it has a very special influence on weather over there from the Cabo da Roca the westernmost point of Europe Mainland to join in the west to another mountain chain the Montejunto, after Montejunto the mountains continue to be connected with Serra da Estrela the highest point of Portugal Mainland. This entire chain of Mountains aren't as high as you might think but really maque the difference between the south and the north when related to weather conditions. So there was my problem. Basically over Sintra hills the sky was completely overcast and the cloud ceiling was so low that even the top of the mountains was hard to be seen as result the flight had to be canceled.

The day after...

Friday had to be the day, almost no clouds and the winds were a bit calmer than the previous day so here we go.

All checks completed, engine run up, call outs, emergencies reviewed, take off briefing and we were ready. Right after departure we climbed to 1500ft instead of the normal 1000ft to pass without getting much turbulence from Sintra and headed on to Cabo da Roca for a shore line route, destination Santa Cruz, airfield, LPSC.

The trip was very pleasant and the aircraft only has the negative point of beeing to slow, slower than the Cessna 152 CS-AZB and than the other 3 Cessnas 172 from Leávia, one of them was the RG model, besides that the aircraft fills very good, responsive and comfortable I have no doubts that the 172 continue to be a very trustful aircraft passed all these years.

After reaching Santa Cruz we headed to the sea abeam of the airfield to train some maneuvers as slow flight, stalls and others, after that it was time to go to the traffic pattern for the first touch and go, this time a regular one with flaps 10º after that an simulated engine failure on the downwind forcing me to negotiate distance height and speed to get to the runway safely this one went very good but I do really hope to never use this kind of skills in other situations than training. After joining the pattern again I was on my way to my final touch and go at Santa Cruz this time with full flaps and after the completion of the third landing we headed to Delta point of Cascais a courtesy of the Sintra Air Force Base Approach controller witch saved me a good 10 minutes very important when it comes to pay to fly.

With Cascais airfield in sight and heading to join the traffic pattern here's the last challenge, climb to 1500ft and at the vertical of the runway perform a simulated engine failure and land. The maneuver went really well but at the runway threshold i was to high fo course that Cascais has a good runway length with lots of space to a C172 but managing the flaps and speed it was very easy to go do the ground without leaving plenty of runway behind.

Now wait until the next adventures in this fantastic little airplane...

~

photo: Carlos Gomes APEA

... just a week later...

If one aerial accident is two much then what to say about two accidents in just a week. That's what happened here at Cascais airfield luckily this time wasn't fatal to those involved.

The Piper Seneca II from AW Academy from Cascais was performing a training  flight and after a landing and take off with a simulated engine failure the Piper smashed into the ground in a property nearby the airfield. The aircraft went down in the middle of trees and bush fortunately not buildings or people. The main fuselage separated into two parts and the wings and engines seemed to be ripped off from the rest of the structure.

Here are some pictures of this accident just a week after a Cessna 152 from Leávia, another flight school from Cascais crash and taken the lives of two pilots.

photos: A Bola

photo: Jorge Amaral/Global Imagens

photo: Paulo Santo

photo: Paulo Carvalho - Aviação Portugal

Sad day for the Portuguese Aviation

Past evening during a night instruction flight a Cessna 152 from Leávia Air School wit the register CS-AUR crashed near Cascais Airfield, LPCS to the families of João Leal, student (in this photo) and Rogério Telles, instructor, My most sincere condolences.

This accident will be investigated by the Portuguese Air Disaster Investigation Office and that will explain the reasons of this terrible accident who claimed the lives of these to Pilots.

The CS-AUR was an aircraft very special to Me this was the aircraft witch I've flown My first Solo. Leávia was the Flight School where I've made my ATPL and MCC courses.

Coming up next!

Things to do in the next days.

Fly again, probably the Cessna 152 or the 172 from Aeropiloto

Photo: Ricardo Gomes APEA

Photo: Rafael Vieira

And after that I still have to renew my Multi-Engine and Instrument rating whitch will be in a brand new Tecnam P2006T from Leávia.

Photo: AirTeamImages.com

Wait for news!

Almost in the Air

The Portuguese Air Force Museum now with a ANA, National Airports Museum and TAP, Portuguese flag company rooms will open on the 29 of this month.

The rooms have been refurbished to be more comfortable and to take the visitor into the historic aviation spirit. New aircraft models will be in exposition along with the ones already exposed.

This is a great mark to the Portuguese aviation and to the Portuguese Air Force who is investing not to make this museum just a place where the old things are kept but a space that has the potential to become one of the great aviation museums of Europe. To get to his achievement the PoAF besides of the military is also working alongside with volunteers and Aero Fénix Museum in the recovery of new aircraft models to expose There is also a project to volunteers who with the necessary formation can take the visitors into a guided tour to the museum. 

I am already with the camera on charge cleaning the lenses and preparing to pay a visit as soon as I can. Please do the same because it will worth I'm sure.

Well done PoAF.

The PoAF Museum website is: http://www.emfa.pt/www/po/musar/index.php